Music

20 Sep 2023

Sufjan Stevens Thanks Doctors After ‘Very Scary’ Guillian-Barré Syndrome Diagnosis: ‘I Owe Them My Life’

Sufjan Stevens was gearing up to promote his upcoming Javelin album (Oct. 6) when he woke up one day recently and couldn’t feel his hands of feet. The singer revealed in a length Instagram post on Wednesday (Sept. 20) that he has been missing from the press rounds in advance of his first solo collection of new tunes in three years because he’s been in the hospital battling a scary autoimmune disease.

“I’m very excited about having new music to share, but I just wanted to let you know that one of the reasons why I haven’t been able to participate in the press and promotion leading up to the release of Javelin is bc I am in the hospital,” the singer wrote along with a selfie of him in a hospital room with a walker at his side.

“Last month I woke up one morning and couldn’t walk. My hands, arms and legs were numb and tingling and I had no strength, no feeling, no mobility,” he explained. “My brother drove me to the ER and after a series of tests—MRIs, EMGs, cat scans, X-rays, spinal taps (!), echo-cardiograms, etc.—the neurologists diagnosed me with an auto immune disorder called Guillian-Barré Syndrome.”

According to the Mayo Clinic, the syndrome is a “rare disorder in which your body’s immune system attacks your nerves. Weakness and tingling in your hands and feet are usually the first symptoms.” The numb sensation can spread quickly and can eventually paralyze a patient’s entire body, requiring immediate hospitalization to begin treatment.

The cause of the Syndrome is unknown, but most patients report symptoms of some kind of infection (COVID-19, Zika virus, a respiratory or gastrointestinal infection) in the weeks proceeding a diagnosis. There is currently no known cure, but there are several effective treatments that can ease symptoms and reduce the illness’ duration, with recovery sometimes taking several years, though most patients can walk again within six months of the first symptoms. In rare instances, the Syndrome can be fatal.

Stevens said he was lucky that he’s received treatment via immuno-hemoglobin infusions for five days, though he had to have faith that “the disease doesn’t spread to the lungs, heart and brain. Very scary, but it worked. I spent about two weeks in Med/Surg, stuck in a bed, while my doctors did all the things to keep me alive and stabilize my condition. I owe them my life,” he wrote.

Stevens said he was transferred to an acute rehab facility on Sept. 8, where he is currently “undergoing intensive physical therapy/occupational therapy, strength building etc. to get my body back in shape and to learn to walk again. It’s a slow process, but they say I will ‘recover,’ it just takes a lot of time, patience, and hard work.”

He noted that most people with GBS learn to walk again on their own within a year, so he’s hopeful that he’ll be back on his feet at some point. “I’m only in my second week of rehab but it is going really well and I am working really hard to get back on my feet,” he said. “I’m committed to getting better, I’m in good spirits, and I’m surrounded by a really great team. I want to be well!”

The singer/songwriter promised to keep fans updated on his progress and thanked them for their thoughts and prayers. “Be well, be joyful, stay sane, stay safe. I love you,” he said. Javelin is the proper solo follow-up to Stevens’ eighth studio album, 2020’s The Ascension.

See Stevens’ post below.

 

20 Sep 2023

Liam Payne Is ‘Out of the Hospital’ After ‘Serious Kidney Infection,’ Girlfriend Kate Cassidy Says

Liam Payne is out of the hospital and on the mend, his girlfriend, Kate Cassidy shared on Tuesday (Sept. 19).

“So I’ve gotten a lot of questions about Liam, asking about how he’s doing,” the influencer — with whom Payne made their red-carpet debut in December — said in a TikTok video in which she’s prepping to head out for London Fashion Week. “I just want to let everybody know that he’s doing so much better. He’s out of the hospital and he’s in good hands.”

Billboard has reached out to Payne’s rep for comment.

The former One Direction singer revealed in an Aug. 25 message posted to his social media accounts that he had been hospitalized with a “serious kidney infection” and was postponing his South African tour dates. “Over the past week I’ve been in hospital with a serious kidney infection, it’s something I wouldn’t wish on anyone, and doctors orders are that I now need to rest and recover,” he noted in the caption accompanying his video.

The 30-year-old also shared in the video message that he had started feeling unwell before being hospitalized. “I’ve just been advised that now is really not the right time to be out on the road trying to recover from this,” he said. “I have the best people around me trying to help me to recover as I speak.”

Payne has been open about his journey to better health in recent months. In May, he revealed that he had reached an important milestone: 100 days of sobriety. “Things are really, really good. I’m sober now over 100 days. I feel amazing,” the musician shared on IFL TV at the time. “I feel really, really good, and support from the fans and everything has been really, really good. So, I’m super happy.”

Watch Cassidy’s update about the singer below:

20 Sep 2023

Taylor Swift Reveals Four Bonus ‘Vault’ Tracks for ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’

After Swifties solved 33 million puzzles in a mad dash to reveal the “Vault” tracks slated for Taylor Swift’s upcoming 1989 (Taylor’s Version) album, the singer finally revealed which extra songs will appear on her latest re-record project.

The announced tracks that will accompany the album’s Oct. 27th release are: “Is It Over Now?,” “Now That We Don’t Talk,” “Say Don’t Go” and “Suburban Legends.” That, of course, was not enough, as fans immediately demanded to know the name of a fifth bonus song that Swift has promised would be on the collection, as well as a Target-exclusive tune that has not yet been announced.

As with all things Swift, Google was overwhelmed by a a mad crush of activity on Tuesday (Sept. 19) when it launched a new pop-up animation to honor the anticipated 1989 release. The 89 puzzles fans were encouraged to solve to unlock the “Taylor’s Vault” tracks resulted in so much Googling that the search engine admitted it was more than the world’s leading search destination could even handle. “Swifties, the vault is jammed! But don’t worry, there are not blank spaces inside,” it tweeted Tuesday evening. “We’re in our fix-it era and will be out of the woods soon.”

It didn’t last long, though, with Google updating the status of the search on Wednesday with another barrage of Swift-related puns, “Swifties, we made it out of the woods! Bridges, built. Codes, cracked. Vault, opened.”

Swift announced the 1989 version in August, making it the fourth “Version” she’s released, since announcing her re-recording project in 2019. The previous three all spent time at No. 1 on the Billboard 200: Fearless (Taylor’s Version) with two weeks in 2021, Red (Taylor’s Version) with one week in 2021, and Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) with two weeks in 2023.

Watch the unveiling below.

20 Sep 2023

Global Citizen Expanding Sustainability Initiatives at 2023 Festival

This Saturday (Sept. 23), the Global Citizen Festival will return to Central Park’s Great Lawn in New York City for a day of music and action. In keeping with Global Citizen’s campaign to push global leaders to take meaningful action to combat climate change (among other initiatives), the organization is making 2023 its most sustainable festival so far.

To that end, Global Citizen announced a partnership with Everland – an organization that works to deliver wildlife conservation for communities at scale – to cover the estimated carbon emissions of the event. Everland currently represents projects in Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cambodia.

And there’s more beyond that. The festival’s stage will be made of recycled and repurposed material from past festivals, and the stage set-up will incorporate indigenous trees that will be planted in various NYC city parks following the event. The menu for performers and attendees will be all vegetarian and come with fully compostable packaging and utensils. (Excess food will be donated to local organizations.) Citi will hand out 30,000 reusable water bottles at the event, and Sure We Can, a nonprofit recycling center in Brooklyn, will accept a donation of cans from the fest.

“As an organization campaigning for climate action to end extreme poverty, sustainability is a core part of Global Citizen’s mission,” said Global Citizen CEO and co-founder Hugh Evans. “From a repurposed stage, to plastic-free concessions, to our partnership with Everland who will cover the estimated carbon emissions of the event by supporting community-centered forest conservation, we are doing everything we can to reduce the environmental impact of our festival, empower attendees to make sustainable decisions on the day of the festival and beyond, and show the industry it is possible to create a sustainable event for 60,000 people.”

The 2023 Global Citizen Festival is headlined by Anitta, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Jung Kook of BTS and Red Hot Chili Peppers, with additional sets from Conan Gray, D-Nice, Sofia Carson and Stray Kids.

20 Sep 2023

Sum 41’s Deryck Whibley Gives Health Update After Scary Pneumonia Hospitalization: ‘Not Out of the Woods Yet’

Sum 41 singer Deryck Whibley is happy to be home and resting after being hospitalized last week for pneumonia. But in a post to fans on Tuesday (Sept. 19) the 43-year-old pop-punk frontman said he’s not quite “out of the woods” yet.

“I wanted to take a min to say thank you to everyone for so much love and support,” wrote Whibley. “Although I’m not out of the woods yet and have been told to be prepared for a bit of roller coaster sickness over the next couple of weeks, I’m staying positive and doing my best to get through all of this.”

Whibley’s wife, Ariana Cooper Whibley, shared on Friday that her husband was hospitalized with pneumonia that could have resulted in heart failure without intervention. The couple were supposed to celebrate their eighth wedding anniversary in Chicago, but instead Deryck was rushed to the ER.

“I’m still bed ridden, having a hard time breathing, tight chest pains and some pretty wild fever dreams, that I guess are keeping this whole thing somewhat entertaining. I’m in the best hands and am on the right medicine,” Whibley wrote.

Whibley’s wife updated his condition on Sunday, saying he was home and was “responding well to his treatments.”

While he’s happy to be on the mend, Whibley said his goal is to get better in time to be his “absolute best” at the When We Were Young festival in Las Vegas next month, where his band is slated to perform alongside a lineup that also includes Green Day, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Rise Against, the Offspring and many more.

Whibley was hospitalized in 2014 after years of alcohol abuse caused his liver and kidneys to collapse; he was placed in a medically induced coma for a week to ward off withdrawal symptoms. Sum 41 announced in May that they were splitting after 27 years together following the release of their upcoming double-album final studio effort, Heaven :x: Hell.”

Check out Whibley’s post below.

20 Sep 2023

Jim Croce’s Death in a Plane Crash 50 Years Ago Today Sparked One of The Biggest Posthumous Sales Booms Ever

Fifty years ago today (Sept. 20), Jim Croce was killed in a plane crash in Natchitoches, Louisiana, during a concert tour of southern colleges. In the previous 15 months, Croce had amassed four top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100: “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim,” “Operator (That’s Not the Way It Feels),” “One Less Set of Footsteps” and the sing-along smash “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown,” which spent the final two weeks of July 1973 at No. 1.

The sudden death of someone who was so new to the mainstream was of course a shock. But few would have expected what would happen next: Croce’s death triggered one of the biggest posthumous sales booms in history. “I Got a Name,” which was released the day after Croce’s death, reached the top 10 on the Hot 100 in November. The following month, the poignant “Time in a Bottle” (which had appeared on his 1972 album You Don’t Miss Around With Jim) became his second No. 1. It made Croce just the third artist in the history of the Hot 100 to top the chart posthumously, following Otis Redding (“(Sittin’ on) the Dock of the Bay,” 1968) and Janis Joplin (“Me and Bobby McGee,” 1971). Moreover, Croce became the first artist in Hot 100 history to top the chart both while living and after his death.

Croce had even bigger success on the Billboard 200, where You Don’t Mess Around With Jim reached No. 1 on Jan. 12, 1974. Croce was just the second artist in the history of the Billboard 200 to reach No. 1 posthumously, following Joplin (Pearl, 1971). You Don’t Mess Around With Jim stayed on top for five consecutive weeks. For two of those weeks, Croce also had the No. 2 album, I Got a Name. He was the first artist to hold down the top two spots the same week since The Beatles scored in March 1969 with The Beatles (better known as The White Album) and the Yellow Submarine soundtrack.

Croce’s impact was also felt during awards season. At the first American Music Awards on Feb. 19, 1974, Croce won favorite pop/rock male artist, beating a pair of legends – Elton John and Stevie Wonder. “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” was also nominated for favorite pop/rock song, but lost to Dawn featuring Tony Orlando’s “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree,” which had been the biggest hit of 1973.

“Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” was nominated for two Grammys – record of the year and best pop vocal performance, male. Croce was the first artist in Grammy history to receive a posthumous nod for record of the year. He lost in both categories at the 16th annual Grammy Awards on March 2, 1974. Roberta Flack’s “Killing Me Softly With His Song” took record of the year, while Wonder’s “You Are the Sunshine of My Life” took the male pop vocal prize. Wonder graciously saluted Croce in his acceptance speech: “I accept this award in memory of Jim Croce, who was a very talented man.”

Another pop legend paid tribute to Croce that spring. Frank Sinatra covered “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown.” His brassy version had a seven-week run on the Hot 100 in April and May 1974, peaking at No. 83.

Wonder had two more top 40 hits on the Hot 100 in 1974 – “I’ll Have to Say I Love You in a Song” and “Workin at the Car Wash Blues.” All of his hits were gathered in Photographs & Memories/Greatest Hits, which reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200 in November 1974, becoming his fourth top 10 album in less than a year.

Croce ranked No. 1 on Billboard’s list of Top Pop Albums Artists of 1974, ahead of Elton John, Charlie Rich and John Denver. He had three albums in the top 25 on that year’s list of Top Pop Albums.

Why did Croce’s music touch such a nerve in the year following his death? Partly, it was because of the sense of loss of a talented young artist who died just as his career was really taking off. The fact that Croce was approached to record “I Got a Name” is a sign of how quickly he was moving up to the A-list. Norman Gimbel and Charles Fox (whose hits include the aforementioned “Killing Me Softly With His Song”) wrote the song for the Jeff Bridges film The Last American Hero.

Also, Croce had some songs that resonated in the wake of his death, and almost seemed to foreshadow it, especially “Time in a Bottle” (“But there never seems to be enough time/ To do the things you want to do once you find them”). The title of “I’ll Have to Say I Love You in a Song” also seemed fit the circumstances. The latter song, at once polished and poignant, became Croce’s fifth and final top 10 hit on the Hot 100 in April 1974.

More broadly, Croce’s music was just right for that era, where soft-rock singer/songwriters were among the hottest acts in the business. His music was a perfect fit alongside such other hitmakers of the era as Denver, Carole King, Seals & Crofts, Gordon Lightfoot, Mac Davis and Dave Loggins.

Croce wrote all of his Hot 100 hits except “I Got a Name” and a 1976 medley of early rock and roll classics. His records were co-produced by Terry Cashman, now 82, and Tommy West, who died in 2021 at age 78.

Croce was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1990, alongside Smokey Robinson and Michel Legrand. In 2013, Garth Brooks included his version of “Operator (That’s Not the Way It Feels)” on his Billboard 200-topping box set, Blame It All on My Roots: Five Decades of Influences.

Croce’s widow, Ingrid Croce — with whom he recorded a duo album for Capitol in 1969 — is now 76. Their son A.J. Croce, who turned two eight days after the crash, is 51. A.J., who is also a singer/songwriter, has recorded 11 albums.

News of Croce’s death was reported on page 3 of the Sept. 29, 1973 issue of Billboard. The following week, there were two full-page ads paying tribute to the singer. One said simply “Jim Croce will be missed and deeply mourned by the Phonogram group of companies throughout the world.”

The other, signed by Jay Lasker, the president of Croce’s label, ABC/Dunhill, had an unusually warm and personal tone. It read, in full:

“Some people reach out and feel nothing. Jim reached out an in some way touched everyone.

“Some talk of love and goodness as if they alone remained its custodian. Jim gave his love and goodness as it if belonged to everyone.

“He told me, last New Year’s Day, that he enjoyed taking care of his son’s 2 a.m. bottle and diaper change because it gave him more time to spend with the boy, something he had precious little time for, in light of his heavy travel commitments.

“We are now all the losers for not being able to spend more time with Jim Croce.”

As we’d see in the weeks and months to come, many listeners, most of whom never met the man, felt the same way.

20 Sep 2023

Snoop Dogg Shows Off His Insane Daily Blunt Tally in Rotterdam, Takes Pride In His ‘Good Work’

If you’ve seen, read or heard anything about Snoop Dogg in the past 20 years, it won’t surprise you that the man can handle his smoke. But in a road video from Rotterdam on Tuesday (Sept. 19), Snoop showed off a truly impressive weed tally during just one day in the Netherlands.

Naturally, the Doggfather was watching his beloved Pittsburgh Steelers battle their division rivals the Cleveland Browns on Monday Night Football. But he was also putting in serious cannabis cardio work by burning down no less than 11 blunts. “Let me show y’all what I been doing today,” Snoop said as he swung the camera over to the windowsill.

“All in a day’s work,” he said as he focused on the nearly dozen thumb-sized roaches neatly lined up near the curtains. “Oh wow, that’s some good work, dog. What kinda pack was it? Death Row. Let a brother know,” he added about the smoke that came from his line of Death Row Cannabis, which launched in December.

Snoop had more than one reason to watch MNF. In addition to watching his favorite team beat the banged-up Browns, he also likely tuned in to catch his refreshed take on the Phil Collins classic “In the Air Tonight,” which he and Chris Stapleton recorded together as the lead-in to the night’s two games; the video for the song debuted on ESPN’s broadcast of the New Orleans Saints playing the Carolina Panthers and then repeated during ABC’s airing of the Browns-Steelers game.

Watch Snoop daily haul below.

20 Sep 2023

Selena Gomez Was Initially Against ‘My Mind and Me’ Doc, Then Relieved and Now Vows to ‘Never Watch It Again’

Selena Gomez provided a rare, raw glimpse into her personal life in the 2022 Apple TV+ documentary series My Mind & Me, an inside look at six years in the singer/actress’ life, chronicling the highs and lows of fame, her struggles with mental health and body image and life after being diagnosed with the autoimmune disease lupus.

But according to The Hollywood Reporter, in a chat with Universal Music Group CEO Sir Lucian Grainge and Thrive Global CEO Arianna Huffington at Tuesday’s (Sept. 19) Thrive Global Music & Health Conference, the Only Murders in the Building star said if she had to do it over again she might have passed on sitting for director Alek Keshishian to spill her guts.

“I was very against it. There was a very long period of time where I just didn’t know if it was a good idea,” Gomez said of her first thoughts on the doc. “I knew, eventually, one day I wanted to maybe just be an actress for a while, and I didn’t know if it would jeopardize things in my life. I don’t know what I’m doing, letting people into my life. And then the moment it was released…I had no choice at that point. And I was relieved. I felt like a huge weight was lifted.”

The good part was that she got to say some things that had been on her mind for years, but Gomez said now it’s “very hard” for her to watch the series. That said, “I will never watch it again, but I’m very proud of it. I couldn’t have been luckier to have the people that worked on it with me,” she added.

With best-selling albums, a hit show in Murders and a successful Rare Beauty cosmetics line, the hosts wondered if Gomez might further expand her brand some day by writing a memoir. “Oh no, I don’t know,” she said. “I’m not wise enough. I don’t think I can do that. But does it mean that one day I wouldn’t be interested? I have fun things I would like to say but not right now.”

Gomez was also asked about how she thinks artificial intelligence might impact the music industry in the midst of the historic dual Hollywood strike by actors and writers, which is predicated in part on the striking artist’s desire to get assurances about how studios plan to employ AI creatively.

“I don’t think anybody in my field wants to feel like they need to lean on a computer in order to translate their story or what they’re trying to say,” she said. “It terrifies me, to be honest, the whole AI thing, but I don’t think you could ever replace what a human being can write… Lil Wayne said it really well, and he was basically saying that there’s no other human like who you are. And that’s all it should be.”

Gomez recently released the bouncy song “Single Soon,” which is expected to appear on her upcoming third studio album, whose release date has not yet been announced.

20 Sep 2023

Ed Sheeran Recorded a Live Version of ‘Autumn Variations’ Album in Sheerios’ Living Rooms

Ed Sheeran is about to release his second album of the year when his Aaron-dessner produced Autumn Variations collection drops on Sept. 29. Actually, we found out on Tuesday (Sept. 19) that he’s also preparing to release his third album of 2023. In an Instagram post, Sheeran revealed that he’s recorded a surprise secret live version of Variations that he tracked in fans’ living rooms across the country.

“So I did some surprise pop up gigs in fans houses, secretly recording a live album of Autumn Variations where each song is recorded in a different fans living room, but all of it was a total surprise,” he wrote alongside a video in which he performs “Wake Me Up” on a superfans’ keyboard as she freaks out and sings along silently with him.

“We got to @kariconaway ‘s house at the end of the day, and I instantly knew it was gonna be a fun one. They had cats, friendship bracelets and some fruit drinks to start, but once I’d played the Autumn song I said take me on a tour, and when I went into her room I saw a piano,” he added. “She asked if I could play and I said ‘not really but I kinda play on wake me up’, so here I am playing ‘Wake Me Up,’ for all the Plus fans out there.”

Sheeran said the live Autumn Variations album — the follow-up to his sixth studio album, – (Subtract), which was released in May — will be “coming soon.”

Back in May, Conway chronicled meeting Sheeran at the outset of the Mathematics tour and earlier this month she posted video of Sheeran showing up with his guitar, pouring some drinks, playing with her cat and playing an acoustic set in her bedroom. “This is what happens when you don’t shut up about your favorite artist ? The secret is out and I can say that ED SHEERAN came to my house to visit ME… #screamingcryingthrowingup#WHAT#edsheeran#sheerio#girldad#whatthefanfiction,” she wrote.

Sheeran posted a TikTok earlier this month hinting at the surprise (it’s the same one Conway re-posted on her Insta feed), in which he promised “surprise pop ups in fans houses to record something special, coming soon. PS your cats were cool.” Sheeran will perform Variations in full at a pair of gigs at London’s Royal Albert Hall on Nov. 18-19; the North American leg of the Mathematics tour will wrap on Saturday )Sept. 23) at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.

Check out Sheeran’s announcement and Conway’s videos below.

20 Sep 2023

Adidas CEO Talks Kanye West After Yeezy Fallout: ‘I Don’t Think he Meant What he Said’

Adidas’ once glorious partnership with Kanye West turned sour, then legal, and unfolded as a headache of enormous proportions when the rapper made antisemitic comments on social media and in interviews.

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Almost a year after the German sportswear company cut ties with Ye, its CEO has no hard feelings.

Bjørn Gulden, the Norwegian CEO of Adidas, shared his thoughts on West and the background to that very public fallout for a recent podcast.

Noting that Kanye’s relationship with Adidas pre-dated his own appointment to the top job on Jan. 1, 2023, Gulden remarked, “I think Kanye West is one of the most creative people in the world, both in music and what I would call street culture. He’s extremely creative.” And together, both parties created the Yeezy sneakers line “which was very successful.”

Putting creativity to one side, Ye “made some statements which wasn’t that good,” Gulden continued. “That caused (Adidas) to break that contract and withdraw the product. Very unfortunate, because I don’t think he meant what he said and I don’t think he’s a bad person, it just came across that way.”

Speaking with Nicolai Tangen, CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management, for the In Good Company podcast, Gulden said Ye’s remarks “meant we lost that business, one of the most successful collabs in history. Very sad. But again, when you work with third parties that can happen. It’s part of the game. That can happen with an athlete, with an entertainer. It’s part of the business.”

Adidas cut ties with Ye last October, raising questions about the fate of 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) worth of unsold Yeezys. At Adidas’ annual shareholders meeting in May of this year, Gulden revealed that Adidas would try to sell part of the remaining Yeezy inventory and “donate money to the organizations that help us and were harmed by what Ye said.”

By ending its association with Ye, Adidas took a bath. The split contributed to a loss of 600 million euros ($655 million) in sales for the last three months of 2022, helping drive the company to a quarterly net loss of 513 million euros. Adidas reported 400 million euros ($441 million) in lost sales at the start of 2023.

Gulden, formerly CEO of rival sneaker specialist Puma, succeeded Kasper Rorsted at the helm of Adidas, who was in charge of the business from 2016 until his departure November 2022. 

Watch the interview in full below.